Paper short abstract:

For my MPhil dissertation, I interacted virtually with three Muslims who drew on theological and scientific epistemologies to discern God’s decree amid the pandemic. I will describe my ‘patchwork’ research methodology consisting of online sermons, podcasts, and digital interviews.

Paper long abstract:

In the wake of Covid-19 and the radical incertitude it engendered, biomedical and epidemiological rationalities struggled to provide cures, certainty, and satisfying answers as to why a calamity of epic proportions should befall humanity. The Sunni Muslims I describe here resorted to figural imagination to understand divine decree amid this uncertainty, bringing theological knowledge to bear on the conditions of pandemic life. These Muslims searched for signs of the sublime God in observable phenomena, signs that pointed beyond the realm of human perception and toward cosmic revelation. Through these imaginative exercises, they attempted to locate divine wisdom specifically within epidemiological guidance and within broader social transformations engendered by the pandemic.

Amid lockdown measures, when new ritual innovations like live-stream worship sessions and digital religious gatherings gained traction, I drew significantly on online sermons delivered on social media or as podcast episodes. Online platforms allowed me to connect and conduct interviews with Muslims listening to these sermons. By using sermons, I took my cue from Charles Hirchkind (2006), who discusses the significance of aural media that constitute Cairo’s soundscape and shape the moral lives of its Muslim residents. Hirschkind contends that religious sermons and Quranic recitations transmitted through these media seek to cultivate affects, virtues, and comportments that enable listeners to live in accordance with God’s will. Following Hirschkind, I appraise how modes of reasoning cultivated through virtual sermons prepare ordinary Muslims to reckon with spiritual and health challenges posed by the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions on everyday life.